Ontario Fault Determination Rules

The Ontario Fault Determination Rules (commonly known as the Fault Rules or FDR) is a regulation under the Ontario Insurance Act enacted by the Parliament of Ontario to judge driver responsibility after car accidents in Ontario. The Fault Rules say which driver was responsible for an accident. Accidents are either 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% at fault. If the driver is from Ontario, the portion not at fault percentage is covered under Ontario's mandatory to buy Direct Compensation insurance, and the at fault portion is covered under the optional to buy Collision insurance.

A fault rating between 50–100% might affect the driver's and insurance policyholder's future risk factor and therefore future insurance rates. Note auto claim's using Specified Perils/Comprehensive for events like theft, vandalism, or hail damage are not subject to a fault rule (but may affect insurance rates and coverage depending on policyholder's claim history).

The Fault Rules are for most every accident in Ontario. However, under some rare conditions the Fault Rules do not apply and accident responsibility is determined by car accident case law. Car accidents outside of Ontario are governed by the Provincial or State where it happened. Each respective regulation is similar to these Fault Rules, but differences do exist, see the correct jurisdiction's fault rules for their details.

Basic Rules

The Fault Rules have several basic conditions. These conditions specify that insurance companies have to use them when determining fault, and that circumstances like weather or road conditions do not matter when determining which driver was responsible.

The conditions are:

Evidence

Determining car accident fault requires knowing what happened at the accident. Re-creating an accident can be difficult. To deal with this most fault rules have a version for knowing the details of the accident, and not knowing (ex. accidents in the middle of an all-way stop).

The following are the ways accident details are collected.

:*Driver accounts to either an insurance adjuster or police officer.

:*Independent witnesses.

:*On site police reports (if the police say for sure what happened).

:*Dashboard camera video.

How much at fault

A car accident can have one or several Fault Rules that apply. If an accident has only one Fault Rule, then the one rule's rating puts each driver 0–100% at fault.

If there are several rules that apply then the rules below apply too.

:

What if no Fault Rule applies

:There are some rare accidents when no fault rule can apply.

:If that happens then these rules apply:

:

The Fault Rules

The below sections are the actual Fault Rules. Each is divided into sections describing where the two (or more) cars are relative to each other.

Rear End

Rule 6.2

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Rule 6.3

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Rule 6.4

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Entering a roadway

Rule 7.2

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:

Rule 7.3

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Entering from On Ramp

Rule 8

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:

Multi Car Rear End - Chain Reaction

Rule 9.3 a-b

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:

Rule 9.4 a-b

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:

Sideswipes

Rule 10.2

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:

Rule 10.3

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:

Rule 10.4

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:

Rule 10.5

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:

Rule 10.6

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Rule 10.7

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:

Pile Ups

Rule 11.2

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:IMAGE

Sideswipe - Opposite Directions

Rule 12.2

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:

Rule 12.3

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:

Rule 12.4

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:

Rule 12.5

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: ::

Rule 12.6

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:

Intersection with no traffic controls

Rule 13.2

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Rule 13.3

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:

Rule 13.4

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:

Intersection with traffic signs

Rule 14.2

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:

Rule 14.3

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:

Rule 14.4

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:

Rule 14.5

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:

Rule 14.6

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:

Rule 14.7

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Intersection with traffic signals

Rule 15.2

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:

Rule 15.3

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:

Rule 15.4

:

:There is no graphic for this rule.

Parking lots

Who Has Right of Way in Parking Lots

Rule 16.3

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:

Rule 16.4

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: ::

Parked Cars

Rule 17.1

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:

Rule 17.2

:

:There is no graphic for this rule.

Failing to Obey Sign or Officer

Rule 18 a-d

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: There are no graphics for these rules.

Backing Up

Rule 19 a

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U-Turns

Rule 19 b

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Open door

Rule 19 c

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Driving Offences

How Driving Offences Change Fault

Notes

References

R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 668: FAULT DETERMINATION RULES Ontario Insurance Act Financial Services Commission of Ontario